Iran: Coroner Points To Natural Causes In Blogger’s Death

The chief of Iran’s coroner’s office has announced that according to his department’s investigation, Sattar Beheshti, the detained blogger who died last week while in police custody, seems to have died from natural causes.

The Mehr News Agency reported today, Monday November 19, that Ahmad Shojai spoke about the death of Sattar Beheshti, saying: “There are no signs of asphyxiation or poisoning in Sattar Beheshti’s remains, and from our perspective, this individual has died from natural causes.”

Sattar Beheshti

He added, however, that the coroner’s office has not reached a final conclusion about all its investigation results.

The 35-year-old Sattar Beheshti, an Iranian blogger who posted critical views of the government on his blog and Facebook page, was arrested on October 30 by the cyber police. A week later, his family was informed that he had died in custody, and no further explanation was given.

An outcry against his death and allegations indicating that he had died under torture led to a government probe into his death.

Shojai said that Beheshti may have died due to the stress of his arrest because, according to the chief coroner, Beheshti used heart medication before his arrest.

However, Sattar Beheshti’s sister insists that her brother did not suffer from any health complication before his arrest and took no medication.

Sattar Beheshti’s fellow inmates at Evin Prison have also testified that they saw signs of severe torture on his body when he was in ward 350 and that he was concerned for his life just before his final interrogation session, which was the last time they saw him.

Shojai confirmed that the body of the deceased bore signs of beatings but he insisted that they were not the cause of the victim’s death.

He added that the final report on the investigation will be released tomorrow.

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